Fear and society

Society, as a whole, depends on some form of fear to function.  Everyday things have been changed to accommodate fear and its role within society.  In most common examples, people pay and give up some things to combat that fear and give themselves peace of mind; paying money for protection from either people or things so they don’t have to worry about that fear.  In extreme cases fear causes people to become irrational and afraid to change, making society turn on individual groups or people to save and protect themselves.  One instance of this in our history was The Great Fear, when senator Joseph McCarthy used the fear of communism in society to gain power and cause people to become fearful to make a change.  If you spoke out you became persecuted for something you didn't do which caused other people to become afraid to change it in fear they too would be persecuted.  Society thrived on this fear and needed it to run, not only did it suppress the people, it thrived on the publicity it generated.  

The role of fear within society has been invariably present throughout time. It’s societies Achilles heel.  From the time people started colonizing the new world to today's modern times, fear has always been a major factor in societies decisions.  Especially in today's world, one major fear factor is terrorism, which has caused society to become somewhat irrational.  Long and costly wars have been either started or prolonged in the fight to end terrorism.  If you speak out against them then you’re labeled as someone who supports the ‘bad guys’ even if it may cause a change, and while people may try and speak out, others will let it happen because the influence of fear around them.  But even if someone speaks out, what they say may not be for the better good, people may wrongfully convict others to save themselves from that fear in society.  Without society fear would not have anything to consume, but then again, without some type of fear, society would not be able to continue.  

weakness vs reputation

Throughout The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, he illustrates ideas of weakness and fear with respect and reputation by emphasizing the effect those have on the soldiers throughout the war, not only do these fit in with O’Brien’s book but with modern day Iraq veteran stories as well.  During the course of this book, O’Brien talks about weakness and the fear and guilt that go along with it.  How every soldier lets it silently tear them up just so they can seem brave; “They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained… in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down…”(20, O’Brien).  Fear was always with them, through every mission it weighed on them but they kept it from each other, knowing each of them had this weakness they couldn't face head on.  This weakness and fear also shows up in the Iraq veteran story of Kobe Bazelle.  During his audio Kobe tells the story of when his platoon was ambushed, and how “all hell came from all around us, out of nowhere…”(Kobe).  In the past he stated how everything was almost normal in the war, but that night he thought “I’m going to die, I can’t put into words how scared I was I just kind of lost it after that…”(Kobe).  Fear is usually considered to be a weakness, but in the eyes of O’Brien, facing that fear makes you courageous, not just hiding it.  Kobe in a way faced that fear by talking about his weakness in that moment, how he was scared and didn't want to die, but yet he still didn't face it head on, he was thrown into it, expected to survive it.  That weakness within fear and shame both show up in modern day warfare stories and  in past war stories as well.  This idea itself is almost like a mask effect, you see the face people or soldiers make to seem courageous but once you get into real fears you can tell what lies underneath.

Even though O’Brien writes a great deal about fear and weakness, he also mentions the idea of reputation and the respect it holds.  Each soldier tries to cover up some fear they have in order to appear courageous, when they’re under attack they can make jokes about it later but when something embarrassing happens to them, they immediately protect their reputation.  O’Brien mentions how Curt Lemon “had a tendency to play the tough soldier role, always posturing, always puffing himself up,” (82, O’Brien) to appear courageous and brave, but when he finally had to face his fear head on he fainted; “ -but there was something about a dentist that just gave him the creeps… he fainted even before the man touched him.”(83, O’Brien).  Once this embarrassment happened to Lemon he immediately tried to save his reputation, “...the man finally shrugged and shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth. There was some pain, no doubt, but in the morning Curt Lemon was all smiles.”(84, O’Brien).  Once he was able to show that he could face his fear, his reputation to the other men seemed redeemed; no longer was he some guy that fainted at his fears, he was a soldier who could take his fears and that earned respect.  The idea of respect and reputation was also visible in the Iraq story of Truman Muir.  One of the most significant things Truman states is that “[his friend] didn't die for nothing.”(Truman).  While his car was bombed his friend and him were injured and taken to get care, but while  he was in surgery his friend died from severe head trauma; he wants his friends death to not be in vain, that he died upholding his reputation and not only does that deserve respect but it deserves to be known.  Truman,though, survived with only a leg injury and once he came back to the U.S decided he wasn't going to tell people the truth, that “it’s awkward because when I tell them what happened they don’t know what to say… I feel weird saying it, they feel weird hearing it…”(Truman).  Truman’s reputation on upholding his friends reputation is at stake, not only is he somewhat embarrassed by what happened but it makes other’s too, some give him respect by “saying thank you for my service”(Truman) while others “say ‘Oh that sucks, I’m sorry’ and turned away slightly embarrassed.”(Truman).  Reputations are a way for people to make assumptions about you, the soldiers in The Things They Carried depended on those to make them appear strong and courageous, someone you could trust; just like Lemon though it made the veteran appear strong until the aftermath, until they showed they could overcome that fear.

significance of memories

Throughout the piece On keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion, she claims that keeping a notebook is important because not only does it allow the keeper of the notebook to write and remember anything at that instant, but it also lets them record how they felt at that particular moment; whether the facts of that event are true or not.  Similar assertions are found in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, except instead of a notebook being important, O’Brien stresses the importance of memories and their purpose for his novel.  Didion writes, “But our notebooks give us away, for however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable ‘I’ ”.  Everything ever written was created entirely for the writer and no one else, it may have some impact for others, “I imagine, in other words, that the notebook is about other people” but its main purpose is for the writer, its their own personal  outlet from the world that lets them record information important to them; “we are talking about something private… an indiscriminate and erratic assemblage with meaning only for its maker”.  

O’Brien, with similar ideas in mind, writes how memories are significant because they make a story real to both the author and the writer, “What stories can do, I guess, is make things present” (pg.172).  Memories can produce any feeling the writer chooses to show, giving someone a feel for how someone felt at a particular moment or how they wish they had felt, similar to Didion’s assertion; “I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God.  I can be brave. I can make myself feel again” (pg. 172).  They create illusions meant only for those the memory belongs too, O’Brien talks about how the memory of the man killed on a path stays with him because depending on what he chooses to believe the memory reminds him how he killed that man or how he didn't kill him; “For instance, I want to tell you this: twenty years ago I watched a man die… I did not kill him… But listen. Even that story is made up… Here is the story-truth… I killed him.” (pg. 171-172).  His memory of that day gives him the illusion he didn’t kill that man near My Khe, or that he had in fact took away his life.  Throughout his whole novel Tim uses memories to tell his war stories, giving readers the same illusions the memories give him.  These assertions between On keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien are similar because not only do they both allow the owner of a notebook or a memory ability to show and record details of significance to them but it lets them also show that illusion to others in a way they might find it of personal significance as well.